Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Dear Swift: Am I cheating on my books by buying an e-reader?

I bought a Kobo yesterday - it's white and lilac, and it currently holds five books - but I feel like I'm cheating on my books. I love books! I love the feel of the paper, the sound of cracking a new book open, the ability to dog ear them so I can share a passage or thought with Raymond, the smell when you go into a used bookstore. I love standing in front of my bookcase trying to decide what book will be next in the rotation. (I have a stack of books beside my bed. The current one is on the top, then I put what I'm going to read next in order. Sometimes a book moves up, sometimes it moves down, but nothing overtakes the current book!) I love looking at the covers and reading the synopsis even when I'm half way through. I love my books, and I feel like I'm abandoning them for something shiny and new.

But my eye sight is getting so bad that I can't read novel sized books any more. (And even the trade paper backs are a bit difficult!) And with the muscle spasm headaches moving into my cheeks, I can't wear glasses without pain. I miss my reading so much - I generally read an hour or two before bed, and I'm lucky if I can read for 20 minutes! - and it's such a part of who I am, so I did the math and realized it's easier to get a Kobo than a pair of glasses I won't be able to wear!

If you're in Canada and in the market for one, check out Future Shop as they are $10 cheaper than Chapters/Indigo/Coles.

Is it weird that I started looking for patterns for a case before I opened the box? Yep, everything is an opportunity for crafting! Nevertheless, I think I'll make an envelope case for it so I have somewhere to store it when I fall asleep at night. I generally tuck my book, book light, and glasses under the pillow, but it might get scratched. (Sometimes I tuck the book under the dog sleeping in between our pillows, and she doesn't like that much!) I think I might find an hold hard cover book and hollow it out to become a case! (I have a great book called Susan Lends A Helping Hand, with a young girl looking frazzled as she tries to mow a lawn, but it's just a bit too small!)

I don't know if I'm going to have 3,000 books on my Kobo - yep, it can hold that much! - but I do like the idea of having my textbooks on it so I can study when I have a few free minutes between clients or before the youth programs. And it'll be far less heavy than the 1,000 page monstrosity I had last school year for math! And it'll be great for camping or travelling as well! I'm getting okay with this - I'm not cheating on my books! Am I?

If you own something like this, did you know you can load my e-books on to it? (Look to your right to see the list!) Drag and drop onto your e-reader in whatever operating system you're using (I'm using Lion on my Mac), and you have a book on your e-reader!

16 comments:

I'm a dedicated lover of real, printed books as well, but I confess to envying my husband's Kobo (my gift to him last Xmas). He's a cab driver, and it's a good deal easier for him to cart a Kobo around. (Besides, it stops him ruining my paperbacks by folding the covers back on themselves!)

Re. making a cover, I made a snug-fitting slip case using flock-backed PVC, the kind you use for table covers. I cut the open ends to curve into the side seams; bound the two open top edges with seam binding; stitched the side seams, then neatened them with seam binding. It does the job quite well.

I got a kindle for Christmas last year and it's taken me some time to get used to it but I'm a convert (kind of)! I encourage people I know to get one now. It lacks the wondefulness of the book store, the smell and tactile comfort of a real book, and you can't trade the books when you're done (a big caveat for me). But! But it's neat. By the first chapter I forget I'm on an dreaded and am lost in my book line normal. It's opened me up to books I would not otherwise have read and enjoyed (like the Hunger Games, which I borrowed through the kindle lending library). It's convenient for travel and reading epics in bed (not so heavy) and the highlighting passages is much cooler than my old dog ears. And I keep your ebooks on it! It will never replace my real, beautiful books but it's become a nice compliment to them. I hope you like yours; I'm curious how you'll find the experience. Keep us updated!

oh, i meant to add re the checking out the books - directly onto the e-reader, from home, and you can either return when you're done by selecting that, or they automatically take it back after the right time (here it is 14 days). never have to go into the library.

Hello, my name is Nancy, I have an, "I need to turn pages in a real book," disorder. Or, I did...I got a Kindle Fire and I can buy new books with less money and even put an app on it so I can download all of Sue's stuff to it to read there. An Adobe Reader app. I have her books stored on it for easy getting and I LOVE it.

I always said I would, *never,* use one of, "those," things. I am now eating my words and my husband is giggling. Not pretty. :)

We can check books out of the library here, and I'm going to look into that when we get back from camping later this week. I'm reading Game of Thrones, which is going to be at least a six month commitment, but after that, I'll be checking out whatever I can. It looks like I can get comics - sorry, graphic novels - on the Kobo, which is fantastic as I hate it when I can't get a part of a series. (I've just started reading the Buffy comics, season 8, but I get frustrated when they come into the library out of order. It's just pointless!)

Hi Vicky! Thanks for the idea for the PVC. I have tons of various fabrics I'll play with on my holidays over the next two weeks to make a cover. I'm leaning towards the book style of cover, but that seems like a lot of work!

Hi Mychelle. I hate that I won't be able to trade books with people - I love sharing what I've learned - and I'm not a fan of the prices, but I like that I can increase the font size.

Hi Nancy! I really do like pages - the smell, the dog earing, the turning of them - but it sounds like the people who love books love their e-readers as well. Interesting...

Does the screen scratch easily? I was worried about that last night as I desperately tried to find somewhere to put the book as I fell asleep!

iPad here, and I love it. Didn't know for sure if I would or not, but it makes reading at night so much easier...no light to keep my husband awake. I like packing for trips, all my books in one small space. Helps the space in our house which is overflowing with books. The big downside is not being able to share with friends.

I did not know I could read your ebook on kindle until you told me! (I don't have a physical kindle just the app I downloaded on my android). The google e-reader on android doesn't allow it...or I couldn't figure it out.

Kindle does not make it easy. They don't let you know in the user interface that you can do it. After digging around the help page on their web site I figured out I had to email the pdf to my kindle email address (which I didn't know existed).

While the formatting is a little off it's still great to be able to read your ebook using a reader.

For me, I still read pleasure books on paper (mostly library checkouts) but for technical information type books an e reader is way more convenient.

I have a Nook and through Barnes and Nobles and they have an app called Nook Friends. If the book is defined as "lendable" you can share it with your friends. In the app you can sign up and it will post the books you want to share so your friends can search your library. There are two caveats though. 1. You get two weeks to read it before it becomes unavailable and 2. You only lend each book once. But if you are able to get on the Facebook page called "Nookfriends" you'll find yourself with more friends than you can shake a stick at.

I am a book lover too, but wow! once I got my Nook, a whole new reading world opened up! I've had mine over a year, and I'm still enchanted by it. :) It comes with a Pandora app, so it's also a music machine. And when I was sick recently, I watched Netflick movies on my Nook while I was in bed! Since I'm infamous for reading 2-6 books at one time, they're always with me and I can shift from one to another with ease. The only real drawback it the ease of buying more books, especially if you're in the middle of a series. You have to watch your purse! :)

same here. I actually started to read more since I got my smartphone (later upgraded to a kindle, as my eyes got too tired from long nights reading).

I love the idea that I can now keep my desk clean&clear, that I can increase fonts' size and that it's lightweight... I tend to stuff things in my purse on my way to work, so a game of thrones "bible" would be a killer! I have read it in an e-format and , well, in a few weeks , maybe less than 2 months actually, I finished it all... great stuff! Even though we do not have here an option to borow books from libraries :-(

Just wanted to pop in and say that I love my kindle (I have the standard black and white e-reader kind) and I am reading my formulating lotions book on it now :) My 2 year old also loves the kindle and we read bedtime stories on it. She knows how to turn the pages and everything, its really cute. She wants to hold it and turn the pages while I read. I like how I can have multiple books in one tiny little spot rather than an entire bag full of books.

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Unfortunately I'm not able to offer business consultations at this time as I'm simply too busy. Thank you so much for thinking of me when you need assistance with your formulations. (I may be able to offer this in the future.)

As a note, I am not affiliated with any suppliers or manufacturers of any craft supplies of any type. If I rave about something, it's because I love the ingredient, fabric, beads, etc. not because I've been paid to say something nice! I do get free things from time to time from manufacturers and suppliers, but I make them aware that I will be brutally honest about those ingredients on the blog!

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My e-books

To raise money for our youth groups, I've put together these e-books! If you want to learn more about the books or donate, click on the bolded links!Or click here for a short description of all the e-books!The new e-book is here! Formulating Facial Products! This 399 page e-book is filled with recipes for facial products, including moisturizers, sera, cleansers (oil and surfactant based), scrubs, gels, and more, as well as entries for ingredients like botanical extracts, cosmeceuticals, emulsifiers, thickeners, essential oil, and more, as well as a large appendix about our oils.

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $28 donation to our youth programs, we'll send you a copy of this e-book along with the preservatives, oils, butters, and surfactant charts as a thank you for your kind generosity!

Formulating & Creating Lotions! This 224 page e-book is perfect for those of you familiar with lotion making and ready to start creating your own recipes! I've included all the information I know about the HLB system, as well as my base recipes for lotions, creams, body butters, and moisturizers!

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $26 donation to my youth programs, I'll send you a copy of this e-book, an HLB calculator in Excel format, and the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts.

Lotion Making 101. This 305 page book includes everything you wanted to know about the basics of making lotions, including the chemistry of our lotions, ingredients we use, keeping your lotions safe, equipment you might need, and more recipes than I could count! For those of you who don't have the Back to Basics book, I've included all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles.

Click here to see the table of contents. If you make a $29 donation to my youth groups, I'll send you along a copy of this e-book as a thank you. I'll also send you a copy of the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts!

Back to Basics: Anhydrous Products. This 122 page e-book includes over 50 recipes and explanations for making lotion bars, whipped butters, balms, oil based scrubs, bath melts, bath oils, oil based sprays, solid scrubs, and facial sera, as well as all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles and everything I've gathered about the chemistry of our oils including fatty acids, mechanisms of rancidity, phytosterols, and polyphenols.

Click to take peek at the Table of Contents. If you make a $25 donation to the groups, I'll send you a copy by e-mail as a thank you!

Click on the links above to learn more about the books. If you already know what you want or want to make a general donation, click the button below! (I'll know which e-book you want by the amount you've donated!) Thank you so much for supporting our youth groups. You have made it possible for us to continue offering our programs and we finally got that sewing machine!

I've had to remove my cell phone number due to a number of calls from people wanting to learn how to make lotion. If you are part of the groups or want more information, please email me or call Community Services at 604 792-4267 to get connected.

Who the heck is Swift?

I'm an aspiring cosmetic scientician and DIY girl interested in pretty much any craft you can name - bookbinding, jewellery making, sewing, paper crafts, polymer clay - but my main passion is bath & body product making.
I am currently obsessed with Rock Band (bass and singing) and science books. Did you know my favourite word is "toaster" and my favourite adjective is "hirsute"?